SAMOAN REPORT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 50, 27 August 1930, Page 11

SAMOAN REPORT

EXCEPTION TAKEN

MR. 0. F. NELSON'S COMPLAINTS

Exception to the number of statements made in the tenth report of the Government of New Zealand on the administration of the mandated territory of Western Samoa is taken by Mr. 0. F. Nelson, and in a petition to the House of Representatives lie asks that the report be not accepted in its present form, bnt that it be returned to the Administrator : for revision. . Mr. Kelson asserts that the report ivrongly stated that the Mau, was resuscitated by the retnrn to Samoa of the two chiefs—Tuimalealiifano and Faumuina —who had given evidence in a Supreme Court case on his behalf, and that this is another attempt to blame him for all the Man's activities. Most of the offences charged against the Mau were isolated instances of hooliganism, produced by the unstable state of affairs resulting from the drastic methods of the police, and wero as much deplored by the Mail;as by the Government. .. "■ ' j

It-is also argued that the statements referring to the tragedy, of 28th December, 1929, in which eleven Samoans and one white constable died, are misleading and do not represent the true position. The report, continues the petitioner, omits to mention the non-ag-gressive methods of the Mau and the assistance rendered by the Mau to the police. It is also contended that the section referring to the women's Mau, and alleging dissolute behaviour on a section of the women, is an attack on the good morals and chastity of the womanhood of Samoa. •

: The petitioner claims that the report endeavours to conceal the fact that the Mau is yet representative of the overwhelming majority of the Samoan people, and that the Mau is the only organisation which has the authority to speak on behalf of the Samoan people, while those referred to as the "loyalists" comprise a very small percentage of the people and that most of these are in the pay of the Administration, or are in some way or other under some obligation to it;